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Defending Record, Blumenthal Wins Nomination

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut greeting delegates after receiving the Democratic Party’s nomination for the United States Senate.Credit
George Ruhe for The New York Times

HARTFORD — Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, trying to rebound after reports that he had misrepresented his military record, accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for the United States Senate here Friday night, saying he would not let his opponents “make this race about attacks on my character and service.”

“I have made mistakes,” he told hundreds of party stalwarts here. “I regret them. And I have taken responsibility. But this campaign must be about the people of Connecticut. I want to get results for the people of Connecticut. And I’ve proven I can.”

The state convention here was supposed to have been a coronation, and it was, with a lone rival registering only barely in the delegate count and being denied a chance at the microphone until he had already lost.

But what should have been a raucous display of unbridled enthusiasm, given Mr. Blumenthal’s tireless glad-handing, favor-banking, and headline-grabbing in 20 years as attorney general, was complicated by a palpable sense of uneasiness.

Over cider doughnuts and fries before his speech, delegates and V.I.P.’s could be heard debating whether the damage to Mr. Blumenthal’s Mr. Clean reputation would be lasting and threatening or merely a speed bump on his road to victory.

A firestorm of criticism of Mr. Blumenthal, who has never faced such a test, was set off Monday night, when The New York Times reported that Mr. Blumenthal had sometimes claimed to have served in Vietnam. In fact, he received five deferments that allowed him to avoid the war and, among other things, travel abroad to study and work in the White House.

In the article in The Times, Mr. Blumenthal was quoted as telling an audience in Norwalk in 2008, “We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam.”

Mr. Blumenthal said he never intentionally misled the public about his military record, and stated that there were numerous occasions on which he accurately described having joined the Marine Corps Reserve and served stateside during the war.

Conventioneers seemed for the most part to have forgiven him. Bernard Kavaler of West Hartford, an employee of the state university system, insisted Mr. Blumenthal’s travails this week might have hurt him with “probably a handful of people,” but that “the people of Connecticut are well aware of the difference he’s made for this state.”

But Carolanne Curry, a delegate from Westport, said she had abstained from the roll-call vote because Mr. Blumenthal had passed up a “golden opportunity” to apologize. “People were ready to hear it,” she said, referring to his nationally televised news conference on Tuesday. “But to equivocate, and defend — it was just too much for me. What’s the matter with ‘I’m sorry’?”

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“You don’t put yourself out there as the height of integrity and get yourself caught up in such self-deception,” she added. “It just will not work on the floor of the United States Senate.”

Also Friday night, Linda McMahon, a pro wrestling executive who has vowed to spend $50 million on her campaign if necessary, won the endorsement for Senate at the Republican convention, held nearby. She defeated Rob Simmons, a Vietnam veteran who served three terms in Congress. Ms. McMahon received 737 votes, to 632 for Mr. Simmons.

Mr. Simmons said he planned to stay in the race, as did a third candidate, the businessman and financial analyst Peter Schiff. The primary is Aug. 10.

At the Democratic gathering, Mr. Blumenthal took the stage to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” and noted that a biographical video had just showed people whom he had helped get through various personal crises. “This week, as you all know, I had a little bit of a tough time myself,” he said. “You all have been hearing what my wife, Cynthia, has been telling me for almost 30 years: that I am not perfect.”

But he assured the crowd: “I will never be intimidated, I will never back down, I will never stop fighting, and I will never be outworked.”

In his acceptance, Mr. Blumenthal mainly looked past the Republican contenders, who trailed well behind him in the polls until this week, instead sounding a theme that has become familiar this political season for Republicans and Democrats alike: “Washington isn’t listening.”

He said he wanted to help entrepreneurs and small business owners get loans and credit and promote cheap electricity and clean-energy jobs. He joked that he had worked on his grandfather’s farm shoveling manure, “so when I hear that our political system is stuck, our government is broken, and Washington just plain stinks, I say: Give me a shovel and let me go to work!”

His lone Democratic rival, Merrick Alpert, a young businessman who had mounted a particularly aggressive campaign despite scant support and funding, conceded after mustering only a few dozen votes, and the nomination went to Mr. Blumenthal by acclamation.

Less than a mile away, Republicans gathered for a much more contentious fight. Supporters for the two main Republican candidates addressed Mr. Blumenthal’s woes as they placed their candidates in nomination.

Christine Stuart contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on May 22, 2010, on Page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Defending Record, Blumenthal Accepts Nomination. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe